The outcome of the 2018 Six Nations was settled in Paris. It was where Johnny Sexton, on the opening weekend, delivered a precious away victory for Ireland four minutes after time was up with a 45-metre drop goal after his side had taken play through 41 phases, and it was where England surrendered their crown, fumbling at the breakdown in the last play of the game after France had wasted an opportunity to end the match.

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Ireland’s campaign was summed up in their final moments in Paris, just as England’s was. What marked the champions apart from the rest was their ability to retain possession, as they demonstrated again in securing the grand slam at Twickenham, while England struggled throughout at the breakdown, an area their opponents targeted after watching Samoa dominate that area at Twickenham last November. Possession was nine-tenths of the score.

Last week was Eddie Jones’s most uncomfortable since taking over from Stuart Lancaster at the end of the World Cup. A second successive defeat was followed by the video release of a speech he gave last year during which he made, albeit lightheartedly, derogatory remarks about Ireland and Wales. An experienced, aware coach surprisingly allowed himself to be assailed by hubris after a remarkably successful start to his England career. His Ireland opposite number, Joe Schmidt, is unlikely to make the same mistake, and not just because he is less voluble.

For the second year in a row, the grand slam was at stake when England met Ireland on the final weekend. In 2017, it was Jones’s side that was looking to sweep all before them, again, and Schmidt’s men who knew that defeat could take them back to where they were when he took over in 2013: fifth in the table.

Ireland went into last year’s game on the back of away defeats to Scotland and Wales and a laboured victory at home to France. The victory marked a turning point, the start of an 11-match winning run. Like England, they have been bedevilled by injuries with the No 13 jersey proving particularly unlucky, but such is the system they have established, based on the ball-retaining ability of Leinster and Munster, that players are seamlessly replaced. Wales thought they had an opportunity when two of Ireland’s front five, both Lions, pulled out of the game in Dublin with hamstring injuries but they were barely missed as the home side established 141 rucks to their opponents’ 58 and dictated the pace of the game.

England, in contrast, have been unable to replace their No 8 Billy Vunipola, who has the power to make ground from a standing start, in kind. They did not manage to last year, but burgled victories at home to France and against Wales in Cardiff thanks to their bench, whose catalyst, Danny Care, was a starter this year before the final day after the knee injury sustained by Ben Youngs nine minutes into the opening game in Rome.

Jones’s finishers have turned into nonstarters, managing only seven points combined in the final 30 minutes of the matches against Wales, Scotland and France. He speaks about how England’s superior financial and playing resources should give them an advantage over the rest, but injuries damage cohesion and they are better absorbed by the joined-up systems put in place by the Celts.

It is less a case that England have regressed than that others have improved to the point where away victories, other than in Italy where Conor O’Shea’s exuberance remains undimmed by setbacks, have become scarce. Are England any worse this year than they were in 2016 when they won the grand slam in a tournament suffering badly from a post-World Cup hangover?

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Scotland are an immeasurably better side now at Murrayfield, where they are unbeaten in the last two championships, although their late victory in Rome highlighted a lurking vulnerability away. They ruffled Ireland but lacked composure at vital moments and despite having more of the play in the first-half against Wales in Cardiff, trailed 14-0 at the interval, collapsing after it.

Ireland have become a compelling mix of experience and youth, a side in which no one, not even Jonathan Sexton or Conor Murray, is indispensable. Wales have rediscovered their joie de vivre, like Scotland paying for inaccuracy away from home; all three Celtic countries have developed a strength in depth they lacked in 2015.

Even France have joined in. Matches involving them may have produced the fewest tries for the second tournament running, but they have remembered where their pride was buried. It was resolution that kept them ahead of England in the final quarter, a period when their relative lack of fitness normally overtakes them.

Ireland were up and in in Paris and London, the two away victories outside Rome this championship. France’s bonus point in Cardiff meant England slumped from first to fifth. A section of the crowd booed Eddie Jones as he was interviewed on the pitch at the end of the defeat to Ireland. It was one of his predecessors as Australia coach, Alan Jones, who reheated the quip about turning from a rooster to a feather duster. At least it provides the means for a spring clean.